Voiceless

Chapter 15: Feed me to the Wolves

I woke up at 7:12 a.m. I was drowsy but woke up anyway. I changed my bandage. I remember Josh and Chloe dropping me off yesterday and my mom yelling, "Madison Nichole Ziegler, you have a dance competition on Saturday and you have a cut down the side of your fore head!" Ugh I forgot about the competition. Today was the day we got to choose our sports and clubs. I took a shower, but put on a shower cap to keep the mermaid waves for one more day. I put on some blue  shirt but not to short, jean shorts and just a size too big white shirt that read SALT HAIR DON'T CARE in ombre font. I put on my usual natural make up routine but added mascara and a touch of  eye liner. I headed into the kitchen and just drank orange juice. I waited until 7:55 only Mackenzie woke up and I was going to be late again. "Kenz sorry but today's an important day in school. I gotta go I'm going to leave a note for mom telling her I left for school on my board. Can u just wake her up if she doesn't wake up at 8." I asked her desperately. "but Maddie, u know how mom gets when we wake her up. You get to just skate a way while u feed me to the wolves." She looks at me wide eyed and it reminds me of Chloe.  "Ugh, fine I'll wake her up and you, I said jokingly, you can just sit here and act all wide-eyed and innocent and feed me to the wolves. She smiles big. "It's alright for u to feed me to the wolves, but there's a problem when it's vise-versa." I mumble smiling. Kenzie snickers. As I walk through the arch I realize my boarded was run over. I woke up Greg because he drives faster. I go back to the living room and 1 minute later Greg comes out. He probably roughed it and just, splashed water on his face and  hanged clothes.  "Come on girls." I thdow on some red high top converse. Since my ombre shirt has red on it, grabbed my bag and headed to the car. By some miracle I wasn't late. Can't say anything about Kenz. As I walked the hall I hoped to see Josh. Yes! He's there, he's by his locker, he's with a girl. Some disappointment settled in. I walk over and the girl leaves just before I can get there. She looked familiar though. I just ignore it and open my neat and organized locker. I didn't have those stupid locker accessorie, just a shelf. I loved organizing though. "Hi Maddie" Josh smiles. "Hi Josh" I smile back. "So what are you thinking of joining." Josh asks. "Well Campus Ministry, soccer, Mu alpha Theta math sorority,  National Honor Society." I say as two girls pass by us. "You should try out to be a cheerleader. " he says. "Josh look at her, she doesn't look like cheerleading material." One of the girls says. Josh frowns and opens his mouth, but I finish the dirty work. "Ya, your right I don't look like an idiot." I remark swiftly. Josh laughs. "Funny freshman, but last time I checked, us Cheerleader's are pretty smart since we know how to be popular and pretty." The other girl says. "Are you popular?....NO, are you pretty?.... "Yes" Josh answers. He locks his fingers into mine. "Does Maddie's face look like it was shoved into a cake of makeup?..NO. Come on Maddie I forgot how low there IQ's were." Josh pulled me down the hallway, "Don't try out for cheerleading, I don't want you to change to that." he says. "Trust me I never will Cheerleading isn't my thing, and high school cheerleader's are arrogant and stupid." I replied.  "I wish I could do soccer with you, but I don't have the time." he told me. "It's ok I understand, maybe Chloe will join soccer." I told him. The bell rang. "See you later Maddie." Josh said. I smiled and went to homeroom. I was wandering why I rarely saw Nick, he was a sophmore with Josh but unlike Josh, he took all honors courses. He took all the classes with the Juniors. "Ok class this week is spirit week. Today you will pick 2 electives, clubs and athletics." our teacher said. The whole morning various club teachers and coaches came in and told us, about there extra curriculars. The bell rang and it was lunch time. Chloe and I sat outside. I took out one of those go go squeeze apple sauce pouch and sipped. "What sport are you doing?" I asked. "Cheerleading," she replied.  Of course Chloe loves dance, but I didn't know she would consider going out on a football field in a tiny crop top and booty shorts. I mean I know it's what we do in dance, but the boys there are so use to it by now.

"Oh cool" I say casually. "What are you going to sign up for?" she said eagerly. "Soccer, national honor society,  mu alpha theta, campus ministry, and for electives journalism, and knitting. "Cool I'm joining mu alpha theta,  and national honor society too. For electives though, I'm joining sppech and fundamentals of art." she says as Nick walks over to our table. I tense up. Since Abby visited Mrs. Miller and Gianna was sick. We didn't have dance yesterday.  Which meant the last time I saw him was at our date. "What happened to you?" he asked sitting down. "Nothing I was just, you see there was....I..I mean. I'm babbling like an idiot." I sighed. Nick and Chloe laughed. "She was skateboarding with Josh, and since Josh never skated with a girl before, he took it slow. Maddie though was actually fast and when a car was about to enter a subdivision Josh hesitated and Maddie almost got hit. She collided with Josh and was sent flying into the hard cement. Her forehead started trickling blood and her words, and I quote, were "Dude you got to watch out for those cars." Chloe recited as if memorized. "That's enough Chloe." I said as I saw Nick's face that pretty much read, you went skateboarding with Josh Hyland.  "Then Josh carried her to the hospital where he paid for a check up." Chloe happily said. "Ok, Chloe."  Chloe grinned "Did I mention he paid for ice cream." she said "Chloe!" She laughed, while I tried to clear things up. "He just wanted to show me that he can be different,  and he was. That's, all I got from the experience was a cut and no more skateboard."I said frantically. Nick softened up and I felt relieved. After lunch we signed up for clubs and left. Nick, Chloe, and I walked home from school. Chloe waved bye at her door step and went inside. "You know now that I look at her house, it's really big." I said in awe. "Ya most of the houses are three stories. There's only a few that are one story." he replies. My house was a one story. "Maddie, do you like Josh?" Nick asks hesitantly.  "No Nick he's just my friend, but your my close friend." I said as he smiled. I really didn't want to play with his emotions since we needed them for dance. I went into my house and comed my hair so my waves we're less in tack. Even though they weren't really in tact. I put on a  pale nude dance bra with a gold flowery pattern and a cream colored outline. The back was criss cross. It came with matching booty shorts with a cream waistband. I put my hair in a high pony tail with two braids on the side. my makeup still looked good. I just swiped on some baby lips that we're a really sheer purple, so while being a plum color it was nice and neutral. I actually looked nice. I never complement myself. I put on a dark brown cropped sweater and went to the kitchen to put on my dark brown combat boots. I stretched and my Mackenzie came out, she wore a hot pink tight fit dance top that ended an inch above her belly button then flared out. It had those two thick straps that tied around her neck and had an orange pineapple print. The shorts were orange like the pineapples. She had a thin hot pink sweater and her hair was in a french braid. I still think I look reall nice though and I'm excited to see Nick and dance with him. My mom walks in and we take our lunches and dance bags. When I walked in the studio. I went into the den since there was five minutes and stretched. I was alone and so I pulled out my favorite book. Les miserable. The only irritating thing, about the book was that most of the beginning chapters was just describing the priest. Nick walks in and quietly shuts the door behind him. I shut the book and smile at him. "Hi Maddie." he shyly says. "Hey, do you think we'll have the connection Ms. Abby's looking for?" I asked. "We definitely will." he says confidently. "How are you so sure?" I ask as one eyebrow raises. "Because, because I'm falling for you Maddie Ziegler." I look down in regret. "I love you" he whispered. "No you don't, you probably think you do but it's just a little crush." I reassured him. "No, I had crushes in middle school. This feels different. The one thing that seperates a crush from love, is just words. I could easily describe how I feel like in a crush, but I can't describe how I feel when your around." he whispered.  And that got me, I love literature and that was too poetoc too forget. "I was speechless, voiceless.  I couldn't betray Chloe, and I don't want to hurt Nick. I lean in and kiss him on the cheek. The door opens and I pretend to reach for something past  Nick. He smiles. Then Chloe comes in. "Hey guys, Maddie what are you looking for?